WEBVTT Kind: captions; Language: en

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The Arctic. Desolate. Savage. Remote.

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A wilderness of unending barren vistas.
Through most of bitter cold and almost

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endless darkness.
In the short summers a swamp like morass.

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Not too bad for caribou or polar bears
but no place for human beings. Yet

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this roof of the world holds a stark
menace to our country, to our very

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existence. The menace lies in the
basic new fact of our time that no two

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nations on earth are any longer cut
off from each other by geography.

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We all live at the edge of the same ocean,
the air ocean which envelops the

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globe. And in the air age geography
has new meanings for the safety of the

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American and Canadian people. What was
once the impassable Arctic now provides

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the quickest routes for attack from a
wide sector of Europe and Asia. Be set by

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the nightmare of this threat, the American
government acted. With the advice of

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some of the country's best scientists
brought together at MIT's famed Lincoln

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Laboratories, experimental installations
like this one were built and tested in

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northern Alaska by the Western Electric
Company. Guided by the successful tests,

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the nation's leaders decided on a tremendous
undertaking. This was to build with

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the cooperation of Canada, a radar early
warning line north of the coast across

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the continent to Baffin Island opposite
Greenland. Distant early warning line,

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they named it. Due line it became.
At the proposal to create such a line in that

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distant wilderness, old Arctic hands shook
their heads in doubt. But the due line

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had to be built there. Men had to conquer
that unknown frozen wasteland and

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transform it into a vital outpost of
Western civilization. The United States

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Department of Defense faced a major question.
To what organization should our

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country assign the due line mission?
The answer was given by the Secretary of

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Defense in requesting the Bell System
to take on the job under US Air Force

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supervision. The Bell System with its
integrated planning, development,

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engineering, manufacturing and logistic
organization is uniquely qualified to

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undertake this project which is so
vital to the safety of the country.

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The contract went to the Western
Electric Company, the Bell Systems

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manufacturing and supply unit.

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An international headquarters was
swiftly organized. A host of special

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consultants called in to help start work
on a dozen fronts. Wherever it would

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help speed up the project, subcontracts
were left. The contract called for the

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due line to be delivered within 32 months.

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Impossible, some said.
At best there was no time to lose. Recruiters

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were dispatched to every part of the country,
visited every unit of the Bell

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System, seeking out the right people for
the right jobs. Jack Jennings of Dayton,

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Ohio, commercial service engineer for the
Ohio Bell Telephone Company, signed up

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for a new job as due line
installation department chief.

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Bob Reed of Madison, South Dakota,
lineman for Northwestern Bell, finished a job

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one day, packed his tools and headed north.
His destination? Somewhere north of

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the Arctic Circle, somewhere west of Tuk Tuk.

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Don Gores of Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
installation supervisor for the Western

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Electric Company, said goodbye to his
friends and took off to become a due line

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section chief. From all over America they came.
A cross section of the technical

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competence, the scientific imagination
and the management know-how which go into

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creating reliable telephone service.
All told, 1,000 Bell System men and women

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enlisted to serve in Project 572,
codename for the due line undertaking.

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In the same headquarters building,
the US Air Force established a project office.

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This enabled the Air Force to work
closely with the project supervisors and

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provide prompt decisions to meet the
exacting schedules. By now the critical

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decisions as to exactly where the due
line station should go were nearly

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finished. Aerial photographs of the proposed
site areas were analyzed by skilled

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photo interpretation men so that tentative
site plans could be drawn. Now men had

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to go north and check the tentative plans
on the spot. It was February, the worst

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possible time of year to go to the Arctic.
These were the due line pioneers,

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the siting teams. They took off from snow
covered fields in the north with a few

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all-important tools and instruments and
the bare necessities for living. They

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came down into the isolation of a pinpoint
marked on a map. They checked the

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educated guesses of the photo interpretation
men, explored the beach approaches,

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conducted tests to be sure each site
would be well suited for placing the new

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radar and radio systems being designed
for the line and mark the sites to guide

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the construction crews. As they
completed their missions site by site, a

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3,000 mile long strip somewhere north
of the Arctic Circle began to shed its

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timeless anonymity to take on
an historic identity, due line.

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Close on the heels of the siting teams
came the advanced construction crews.

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First a few, an advanced construction
party went in by light ski plane. Another

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ski plane followed with basic materials
and supplies and a small tractor.

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With that much they made camp, set up
radio communications and cleared the snow

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from a frozen inlet to make an ice strip
big enough for wheeled planes to land

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on. The bigger planes brought
in a bigger tractor, more

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men and supplies. But at some sites
the wind kept piling up the snow so

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fast that a small tractor was helpless.
Then the only way to get a

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bigger tractor in was to drop it by parachute.

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The first time they tried it didn't work.

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One way they learned on the due line
was from stakes. They had lost one

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tractor this way but they wouldn't lose
any more. They knew now how to do it

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right. Finally they had ice strips

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wide enough and long enough for the
biggest cargo planes. The Air Force C-124

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Globemasters made aviation
history with those ice landings.

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They could dig and pile and handle and

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haul and could stay on top in the running
battle with the drifting snows. And

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above all that could work gravel.
Digging and moving gravel is the start of just

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about everything in the Arctic.
Without it you can't build roads, permanent

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airstrips or building foundations.
By early spring

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stateside the tremendous
mobilizing task was in full swing.

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This was a teamwork job.
Government and private enterprise, military and

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civilian, working closely together.
There was teamwork too between nations.

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Throughout the project the US Air
Force and the Royal Canadian Air Force

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maintained a cordial productive liaison.
Engineering problems had to be worked

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out quickly.
Decisions made on 10,001 vital details.

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Had to develop new techniques for building
the due line structures under Arctic

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conditions. At Bell Telephone
Laboratories the all-important electronic

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experimental work was nearly finished.
As rapidly as possible after development

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work was finished the actual manufacturing
and assembly of the electronic

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equipment was pushed intensively.
Procurement was another mammoth test.

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Every item that would be needed in the
Arctic from radar antennas to paper clips

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had to be anticipated and ordered.

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More than 113,000 due line purchase orders
went out from Western Electric and its

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subcontractors to more than 4,600 different
business enterprises located in every

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state of the union, every province of Canada.
A substantial number of these

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suppliers. The job of transporting the
material called for a planned continental

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in scope. It would include a west coast
sea lift out of Long Beach in Seattle,

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another on the east coast from
Philadelphia and Halifax,

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and an inland barge lift down

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the Indian and American

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commercial aircraft of all types and sizes
were bearing the full burden of supply

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for the early construction along the line.
They flew what by all odds was the

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greatest commercial airlift in history.
All together aircraft

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carried 30,000 tons of machinery and
supplies to do line sites before the ice

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landing strips softened in May and June
of that first year. Nothing stopped the

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airlift. Planes were lost and courageous
men gave their lives but the supply of

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the construction work went on.

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In the camps of the construction contractors
living conditions were primitive but

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already the crews were changing the face
of that far north country. The Eskimos

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too were recruited and they did a good job.
The crews built

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roadways, developed water supply sources,
laid down building foundations, and

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made the beaches ready for the sea lifts.

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At the same time to the appointed
places of assembly for the sea

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lifts came the materials that would be
the do line. Came the tools to build it.

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Every item was handled with dispatch
according to a plan carefully designed to

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put it in the right spot on the
beach when it realigned destination.

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Supplies of petroleum, oil, and lubricants
built up acre on acre at Long Beach on

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the west coast. Philadelphia in the east.
In June they started loading on the

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west coast, the petroleum first.
Then these ships went on to Seattle.

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At Seattle they loaded for a solid month.

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At Halifax loading for the east coast
sea lift continued for a month plus 10

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days. The ships were operated by the
military sea transport service of the United

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States Navy. On board would be soldiers
of the US Army Transportation Corps

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intensively trained to handle the unloading
of the ships and deliveries to the

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beaches. On the do line there would be
no going down to the store for a loaf of

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bread or a package of nails or anything else.
Everything had to be transported

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there and you'd be hard put to name an
item that wasn't stowed in these ships.

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The west coast sea lift was to be in convoy.
The slower ships left Seattle first.

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The others following a few days later.
It was a long voyage.